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Cecil Taylor at the Take 3, 1962-'63
by Robert Levin
[Editor's Note: Excerpted and adapted from a work-in-progress, Going Outside: A Memoir of Free Jazz & the '60s] In the summer of 1962, Cecil lands a three-month, four-night-a-week gig at The Take 3, a coffee house on Bleecker Street. It's right next door to The Bitter End where Woody Allen had performed just ...
Lorraine Feather: The Girl With the Lazy Eye
by Carl L. Hager
While writing the tune “Scrabble" for her recently released CD Ages (Jazzed Media, 2010), lyricist and singer Lorraine Feather's songwriting partner, Dick Hyman, had an unusual request that bordered on a dare: could she work the name of the venerable pianist/composer's family friend Dushka into the lyrics? After all, the middle section of his stride composition ...
Dana Lauren: Songs From Her Heart
by R.J. DeLuke
What does it take for someone who has been singing since she was a toddler--and had her sights set singing as a vocation since in elementary school--to make a strong go of it? Great focus and a strong will would be necessary traits. Willingness to learn and a thick skin would also be valuable, particularly in ...
Stacey Kent: Trans-atlantically Yours
by David Adler
This interview was first published at All About Jazz in June 2001. Stacey Kent left the States in 1991 and unwittingly became a British-based international singing sensation. She met her present husband, tenor saxophonist Jim Tomlinson, while visiting friends in London, and one thing led to another. Her first demo received airplay from ...
Dana Lauren: It's You Or No One
by Woodrow Wilkins
It's impossible to predict when chance will smile favorably, so it's important to be prepared for when that opportunity arrives. Vocalist Dana Lauren seized chance by the proverbial throat when, at the age of 17, she met Arturo Sandoval at a jazz festival. That encounter led to Lauren performing with Sandoval at his Miami club, and ...
Carol Sudhalter: The Octave Tunes
by Donald Elfman
The notes to this thoughtful and beautifully executed disc suggest this is the first collection in which the tunes share the trait of all starting with an octave interval. True, perhaps, but what sets it apart is smart music passionately and intelligently played by musicians committed to the fine art of communication. Carol ...
Rob McConnell: Boss of Bosses
by Jack Bowers
Even though largely unknown to most of us south of the border, a number of world-class big bands have made their home in Canada over the years. For nearly three decades, however, there was one whose name and influence rose conspicuously above the others. That band was, of course, the incomparable Boss Brass, and the reason ...
Michael Leonhart: A Fortunate Son
by Telly Davidson
For most musicians, writers and actors, making the final decision to go against the grain and pursue a paycheck-to-paycheck, month-to-month career as a performing artist is one of the harder choices in life. Yet for trumpeter Michael Leonhart, a life in jazz and art is “all in the family": his father is the noted jazz bassist, ...
Ralph Lalama: Steppin' Out, Steppin' Forward
by R.J. DeLuke
Ralph Lalama's rich tenor saxophone voice has been heard for years on the New York City scene, perhaps most notably with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and its predecessors, first led by Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, and later by just Lewis. He's a guy who grew up when rock music was fully bursting on the American ...
In Love With Voices: A Jazz Memoir
by Ken Dryden
In Love With Voices: A Jazz Memoir Brian Torff Softcover; 236 pages ISBN: 1440112851 iUniverse 2009 Brian Torff is a widely experienced jazz bassist who has recorded and played with numerous greats, including violinist Stephane Grappelli, clarinetist Benny Goodman, singers Frank Sinatra and Mel Torme, and ...
